Dhaka is one of the fastest-growing megacities in the world. With a population density among the highest on the planet, life in Dhaka is becoming increasingly complex. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the city is now home to about 24.6 million people, and nearly 15,000 newcomers arrive each day.
Climate migrants, job seekers, and students are pouring in, swelling the city’s population at a relentless pace. With 23,234 people crammed into every square kilometre, providing basic services has turned into a herculean challenge. Among the most pressing issues is waste management.
The crushing weight of solid waste
Dhaka’s waste is dominated by solid waste, which falls broadly into two categories: Hazardous and non-hazardous. Hazardous waste includes toxic chemicals from hospitals and labs, flammable or corrosive substances, old batteries, pesticides, and expired medicines.
Non-hazardous waste is mostly municipal waste, such as food scraps, paper, plastic, and vegetable refuse. On top of that, industries, especially garments, tanneries, plastics, and food processing add their own mountain of waste. Without proper handling, this diverse mix poses serious risks to both the environment and public health.
Waste production
Dhaka’s two city corporations -- North and South -- together generate over 6,500 tons of solid waste every single day.
By 2032, the UN projects this could rise to 8,500 tons. To put it simply, Dhaka produces almost double the waste of other major Bangladeshi cities. Waste generation also varies across social groups.
A member of a wealthy household produces about 560 grams of waste daily, compared to 320-400 grams in middle-class families and 50-250 grams in lower-income households. Most of it is food waste, but plastics, metals, medical, and industrial waste are climbing sharply. Waste generation has more than doubled in the past three decades, while management systems remain almost stagnant.
City corporation data shows 6,800–7,500 tons of waste are collected daily from 129 wards. Yet in reality, about 55% of waste goes uncollected, ending up in drains, canals, rivers, or open spaces, triggering health hazards and urban chaos.
Cracks in the system
Dhaka’s waste management runs through four steps: Household generation, primary collection, transfer to secondary stations (STS), and finally transport to landfills. But every step is flawed. The most important stage -- recycling, reuse, or safe disposal are barely happening.
Treatment plants are inadequate, and the system is largely stuck at dumping. Collection is mostly handled by informal workers, often without training, protective gear, or even gloves. Their exposure to open waste creates dangerous health risks. Transfer stations are often built near schools, hospitals, or busy roads, spreading foul smells and worsening traffic jams. During transport, waste is often carried in open trucks, spilling liquid waste onto roads and seeping into soil and water.
Landfills on the brink
Dhaka relies mainly on two landfills -- Aminbazar in the north and Matuail in the south. Each covers around 100 acres but is already nearing capacity. Built without modern safeguards, these sites lack systems to collect leachate -- the toxic liquid formed when rainwater seeps through waste.
Leachate carries heavy metals, chemicals, and pathogens into the ground, slowly poisoning the environment. These two main landfills serving Dhaka are now on the brink of collapse. This is not simply a matter of running out of space. The deeper reason lies in a failure to follow the basic principles of modern waste management -- Reduce, reuse, recycle, recovery, and proper landfill practices.
Instead of reducing the amount of waste produced at the source, consumption continues to rise unchecked. Reuse and recycling programs are minimal, and most recyclable materials -- plastics, metals, paper -- still end up buried.
Recovery of energy or compostable materials is almost non-existent. Consequently, landfills are overloaded with mixed waste, much of it organic and high in moisture, which accelerates decomposition, creates foul odours, and generates leachate that pollutes soil and water. Proper landfill management requires systematic layering of waste, daily covering, leachate collection, and gas management.
Unfortunately, Aminbazar and Matuail were designed decades ago and never upgraded with modern sanitary techniques. Waste is dumped in bulk, often without segregation, and left exposed to rain and sun. Over time, this mismanagement has exhausted their capacity far earlier than expected, turning them into environmental hazards rather than safe disposal sites.
In short, Dhaka’s landfills have expired because the city never fully embraced the fundamental hierarchy of waste management. Without seriously committing to these steps, every new landfill is likely to face the same fate -- filling up faster than it can be safely managed, while continuing to threaten public health and the environment.
Medical and industrial waste
Medical waste is another ticking time bomb. Hospitals and clinics produce syringes, blades, plastics, and hazardous chemicals like chlorine dioxide and peracetic acid daily. Without proper segregation or incineration, much of it mixes with regular waste, raising the risk of infectious disease outbreaks. Industrial waste is equally alarming. Heavy metals like cadmium and chromium, along with lead from batteries, are contaminating nearby rivers and canals, turning water into a toxic soup.
At the heart of the problem lies citizen behaviour. Many Dhaka residents still treat streets, drains, or open plots as convenient dumping grounds. Plastic and polythene use continues to rise unchecked. Waste segregation at source is rare, making recycling almost impossible.
Government plans and failures
Over the last seven years, the two city corporations have spent around Tk 3,323 crore on waste management. Yet, about 250 uncontrolled dumps remain scattered across the city.
In 2019, they announced a 15-year master plan titled “Towards Zero Waste,” focusing on the three Rs -- reduce, reuse, recycle. The plan envisioned eco-towns, composting, biogas plants, and recycling hubs.
The North City Corporation shifted focus to a waste-to-energy project with a Chinese firm, planning to burn 3,000 tons of waste daily for power generation. The problem is Dhaka’s waste has very low calorific value -- about 600 kilocalories -- due to high moisture, making energy production impractical and environmentally risky. Meanwhile, the South City Corporation is sticking to the master plan, investing Tk 1,544 crore in expanding Matuail landfill and building a sanitary landfill.
Elsewhere in the world, progress has been striking. Japan and several European countries are experimenting with Zero Waste Cities. There, households must separate waste into different containers for plastics, metals, paper, and organics. These are then turned into compost, recycled materials, or even fuel. Instead of treating waste as a burden, they see it as a resource -- fueling the idea of a circular economy. Dhaka could borrow heavily from these experiences.
The human cost
Waste mismanagement is not just an eyesore; it is deadly. According to the World Bank, environmental pollution kills about 100,000 people in Bangladesh every year -- 18,000 of them in Dhaka alone. Toxic gases such as methane, carbon monoxide, lead, and mercury from waste attack the lungs, liver, kidneys, and nervous systems. Children with weaker immune systems suffer the most.
The road ahead
Solving Dhaka’s waste crisis requires bold, immediate action. Waste segregation at the household and community level must become mandatory. City workers need training, protective gear, and modern tools. Sanitary landfills, composting centers, and biogas plants must be built urgently.
Above all, citizens need awareness -- waste is everyone’s responsibility. And if managed well, waste can become wealth, powering a circular economy instead of crippling the city. Dhaka’s waste crisis is not only a problem of urban management; it is deeply tied to public health, the environment, the economy, and quality of life.
The choice before us is stark: Continue sinking under the weight of waste, or turn the challenge into an opportunity for a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable future.
Arghya Protik Chowdhury is a student of Environmental Science, Bangladesh University of Professionals.